Grab your bear can or camp chair, kick your feet up and chew the fat about anything Sierra Nevada related that doesn't quite fit in any of the other forums. Within reason, (and the HST rules and guidelines) this is also an anything goes forum. Tell stories, discuss wilderness issues, music, or whatever else the High Sierra stirs up in your mind.

So Mulholland is to blame for the armpit of CA being what it is today! He should be tarred and feathered posthumously. You know what though? If I researched it further, I might have to thank him for making the Owens Valley the sparsely populated paradise that it is. Hmmmm....

I recall reading in one of Galen Rowell's books a couple decades ago this Owens Valley comment about it being in a better undeveldoped state as a result of the LA aqueduct. Seem to recall he was quoting some well known person like Norman Clyde or one of the early Sierra Club mountaineers. It is all too true that development would likely have occurred as rich development interests offer too much money to resist to ranch land owners. However LA should not have ruthlessly extracted every drop they could which resulted in destruction of the pre-historic riparian ecology of that valley. In modern times courts usually rule for a balance allowing minimal flows down streams. The valley land is half owned by Los Angeles with the rest mostly Bureau of Land Management. mountainous parts north of Mammoth include Inyo National Forest. Thus in the distant future there is the threat Los Angeles might sell some of their lands to developers as it would be very valuable. We can only hope that day never comes and larger powers step in to prevent another needless urban sprawl that only ever makes a few wealthy from the gold and country club rich. ...David